GRAND RAPIDS, MI — It might be a quite a while before people can walk the sidewalk again in front of two slumping Division Avenue buildings downtown.

Legal action against the city may be filed, say property owners cited in March by officials, who are concerned that years of freeze-thaw damage exacerbated by a harsh winter could cause an “imminent” façade collapse at 37 and 41 S. Division Ave.

Last week, officials blocked the sidewalk in front of both buildings, citing concerns that deteriorating structural integrity could injure pedestrians with falling bricks.

“It is my professional opinion that the buildings… are unsafe and dangerous,” City Engineer Mark De Clercq wrote in a March 4 letter to building owners Richard and William M. VanGessel and Jim Heeringa.